Saturday, March 17, 2012

Jimmy Liguyon, in his capacity as barangay captain, consistently
refused to sign agreements with mining companies , which would have
allowed them access to operate on the ancestral lands of indigenous
peoples; this made him the target of harassments by paramilitary groups
and the 8th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army.

ILIGAN CITY–Human rights organizations and advocacy groups promoting
the rights of indigenous peoples have condemned the March 5, 2012
killing of indigenous leader and human rights advocate Jimmy Liguyon
in Purok 2, Barangay Dao, San Fernando, Bukidnon. Liguyon was shot dead
inside his house allegedly by a leader of a paramilitary group. He was
36.

According to reports posted on the website of the Rural Missionaries
of the Philippines (RMP), Liguyon was the vice chairman of Kaugalingong
Sistema sa Igpasasindog to Lumadnong Ogpaan (KASILO), an organization
of indigenous peoples from the southern municipalities of Bukidon.
Kasilo advocates for the defense of land rights, and the the
sustainable use of environmental resources. Liguyon was also the Dao
barangay captain and a staunch opponent of mining companies as he
campaigned against their operations in the region.

Around 6:00 p.m. last March 5, Liguyon was reportedly inside his
house when he was approached and then shot at by a certain Aldy
“Butsoy” Salusad. Witnesses said the killer’s father, Ben Salusad, is
head of a paramilitary group connected to the Armed Forces of the
Philippines, the San Fernando Matigsalug Tribal Datus or SANMATRIDA.
The paramilitary group is said to hold a certificate of ancestral domain
and has been actively campaigning for the entry of mining companies in
the region since 2009.

(Photo courtesy of FrontlineDefenders.org / bulatlat.com)

Based on accounts of witnesses, as reported to human rights groups,
the killer arrived at Liguyon’s house with 15 other individuals.
Liguyon was sitting on a bench with his two brothers when Salusad
ordered him to move to another bench. When Liguyon got up, Salusad shot
and killed him three times. Witnesses also said that Salusad then
justified what he did by shouting that Liguyon had refused to sign an
agreement with Sanmatrida. He also reportedly issued a threat that
anyone else who went against Sanmatrida would also be killed.
Salusad is also reportedly a leader of the New Indigenous People’s
Army for Reform (NIPAR), a paramilitary group directly under the AFP’s
8th Infantry Battalion. Salusad’s father had reportedly confiscated
the taxes levied by the barangay government on small-scale mining
operations in the area.

Resisted offers of mining corporations
In a report by the group FrontlineDefenders, it was said that
Liguyon, in his capacity as barangay captain, consistently refused to
sign agreements with mining companies , which would have allowed them
access to operate on the ancestral lands of indigenous peoples. He
also refused to recognize the ancestral domain claims made by
Sanmatrida..... MORE

Sidebar: Ordinary citizens express disgust over oil price hikes
MANILA – To jeepney driver Seth Delima Bagalacsa, president of a
chapter of Piston in Quezon City, the March 15 peoples’ protest had
already won a small victory since three days before, when the energy
department and the oil firms announced there would be no oil price hike
this week. It contradicted its previous announcements.

“They don’t want to admit that the Peoples’ Protest has anything to
do with it but the people know better,” said George San Mateo, national
chairman of Piston (Pinagkaisang Samahan ng Tsuper at Operator
Nationwide), during the first part of their program at the Elliptical
Road in Quezon City.

Bagalacsa and other drivers from his route joined the March 15
peoples’ protest, because, as he explained to Bulatlat.com while driving
his jeep with the caravan en route to the headquarters of the Big Three
oil firms in Makati City, “conducting mass protests evidently brought
results.”

Such initial victory is “proof that mass protests are indeed
effective,” said George San Mateo, national chairman of nationwide
drivers’ Piston, during the start of their program at Ayala Ave. in
Makati.

March 15 was dubbed as Protestang Bayan (Peoples’ Protest) because it
was a multi-sectoral protest held not just by drivers but also by
workers, urban poor groups, youth-students, professionals, families of
migrants, etc. Even though it was considered as the ‘peak’ of the
campaign, so far, against skyrocketing oil prices, KMU chairman Elmer
“Bong” Labog said the workers led by KMU will still launch “bigger
protests in the coming months,” until some relief from increasing oil
prices is achieved.

Multi-sectoral groups of protesters set up more than 30 protest
centers in the National Capital Region, including those in Monumento,
Batasan, Sta. Mesa, Delpan, Philcoa, and Araneta Avenue. Protests were
also held across the country, from Baguio City to the urbanized towns in
Southern Tagalog, from Aklan to Panay to Cagayan de Oro and Davao in
the South. The drivers’ group Piston also held a protest caravan from
Quezon City to Makati City, one of its biggest since it started doing
protest caravans..... MORE

03/17/2012
Despite efforts by the House prosecution panel and some senator-judges
to bamboozle and, yes, trap the witnesses presented by the defense team
in the ongoing impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona, they
have stood their ground. More importantly, the public and most of the
senator-judges have found them to be credible.

One observer
advised that many of his friends who were known to be skeptical of
Corona’s claims of innocence had a virtual change of mind when they
heard the testimony of Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco. He found the youthful
solon’s narration about the undue haste by which the complaint was
outlined, voted upon and sent to the Senate, straightforward and
credible. “He was just telling the truth,” was how this observer
described what he saw and heard on the first day of the defense’s story.

What
made Tiangco’s testimony even more compelling and, yes, convincing to
this observer was the manner by which the House leadership reacted to
his volunteering as a defense witness. He did not look kindly at the
threats and bullying of House Majority Leader “Boyet” Gonzalez, a
sentiment which seems to be universally shared even by those who
continue to be imbued with the yellow color and aligned with P-Noy and
his group..... MORE

America’s Congress has been contaminated, but don’t worry — someone
is already on it. Members of Occupy Monsanto, a protest group opposed to
the biotech giant, are dispatching aid to the nation’s capital.
Dressed in hazmat suits, members of Occupy Monsanto protested in
Washington, DC on Friday over what they say are corrupt ties between
American lawmakers and the country’s agriculture architect, Monsanto.

Based in the American Midwest, the Monsanto corporation is believed to
be aiding in the bankrupting of small-time farms across the country by
chemically engineering genetically modified seeds that are not just
unnatural, but near impossible to compete with. Concerned over the toxic
make-up of their man-made crops, as well as their corrupt connection
with the US Congress, the Occupy Monsanto group is in Washington this
weekend to make their voices heard.

"In the name of Wall
Street profits, chemical corporations such as Monsanto genetically
engineer crops to withstand high doses of their toxic weed killers that
contaminate our food and water, and have not been proven safe,” explains Occupy Monsanto’s Ariel Vegosen in a statement made this week..... MORESource: RT.com

Osama Bin Laden was plotting to kill US President Barack Obama,
documents found at the terrorist’s Pakistani hideout show. But though
this portrays him as an even greater villain, the problem is that he
could have been dead for years.

The plot involved killing the US President and General David
Petraeus, who was at that time the commander of ISAF forces in
Afghanistan, by attacking their planes.

The Washington Post
was given access to declassified documents that were picked up by US
forces after killing Bin Laden last May. The newspaper reveals the
details of an assassination plot conceived by Bin Laden and one of his
top lieutenants..... MORESource: RT.com

With a growing number of ‘smart gadgets,’ spying on homes may start
to become much easier. In fact, CIA Chief David Petraeus admitted that
Americans were effectively bugging themselves and making it easy for spy
agencies to peek in on their lives.

­Speaking at a summit for In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital firm,
Petraeus noted that new devices that link ‘dumb’ home appliances such as
refrigerators, ovens and lighting systems to the Internet could “change
our notion of secrecy.”

“‘Transformational’ is an overused word,
but I do believe it properly applies to these technologies, particularly
to their effect on clandestine tradecraft,” Petraeus noted..... MORE

The
counsels fop Chief Justice Renato Corona yesterday alleged members of
the Aquino Cabinet regularly flout the law requiring disclosure of
assets and liabilities despite the executive department’s insistence of
using the same law to persecute the head magistrate.

Noting a
recent published report of the Philippine Center for Investigative
Journalism (PCIJ) uncovering shortcomings in the compliance with the
disclosure law by Cabinet officials in filing their statements of
assets, liabilities and net worth (SALns), defense spokesman Ramon
Esguerra said the report only proves that the Aquino administration is
only interested in misusing the law to pin down Corona.

“The
malice they are imputing is more imagined than real as the assets were
declared in the pertinent SALns of the CJ,” Esguerra told the Tribune in
a text message..... MORE

Students
from the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) and
different youth organizations slammed the Aquino government for being
unresponsive to unrest fomented by tuition increases and overpricing of
oil.

The NUSP said the Palace continues to discredit the people’s
protests rather than addressing the demands of the youth to prevent the
increase of tuition and to end the monopoly and overpricing on oil
prices.

“We believe that Palace should avoid actions that divert
us from meaningful discourse and cause inconvenience to the public.
Stop ‘Noynoying’ on oil price increases and address the immediate calls
of the Filipino people,” said Isabelle Baguisi, National Secretary
General of NUSP..... MORE

The
House of Representatives has approved on second reading a bill
authorizing the Land Management Bureau (LMB) to conduct a nationwide
cadastral survey to curb the proliferation of fake land titles.

House
Bill 5870 authored by San Juan Rep. Joseph Victor Ejercito aims to
restore the integrity of land titles by identifying bonafide landowners
and claimants.

Ejercito said land owners must be protected against
defective titles. The integrity of the Torrens Title System, as a
foundation of ownership to real property must be enhanced, so that in
the end, the faith and reliance of the people on the integrity of the
land title will be restored.

Under the measure to be known as the
“Cadastral Survey Act of 2012,” the LMB is authorized to conduct a
survey of the entire country..... MORE

Out
of school children and youth may have the chance to go back to school
by passing the 2012 Philippine Educational Placement Test (PEPT),
Educatio Sec. Bro. Armin Luistro announced.

“Our modest
contribution to nation-building is to give our youth a fighting chance
to succeed in life through the placement test,” said Luistro.

The
test result will determine the grade or year level appropriate for the
test taker. PEPT covers all levels from Grade 1 to Fourth Year high
school so that takers can have a chance to move to the next grade or
year level or even complete basic education in just one examination.
“That is possible if they are doing home schooling or if they have
acquired enough knowledge and life skills,” Luistro explained..... MORE

03/17/2012
Members of the Anti-Logging Task Force (ALTF) backed up by operatives
of the 67th Infantry Battalion have confiscated P1.16-million worth of
lawaan logs measuring 242 cubic meters in a series of operations in
Boston, Davao Oriental Wednesday.

Major Jacob Thaddeus Obligado,
commanding officer of the 10th Civil-Military Operation Battalion, said
the apprehension was made in Sitio Baybay, Barangay San San Jose and
Sitio Baclinan, Barangay Cawanan, all of Boston, Davao Oriental.

He said the logs are now in the custody of the Boston Police Station..... MORE

03/17/2012
San Juan City Rep. Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito yesterday denied there
is an existing rift between him and friend Navotas Rep. Tobias “Toby”
Tiangco as he scored those trying to sow intrigue between him and the
Navotas solon.

In a statement, Ejercito stressed efforts to
destroy his friendship with Tiangco are irrelevant as his friendship
with the Navotas lawmaker goes beyond politics.

The other day, a
national newspaper ran a story saying Ejercito contradicted Tiangco’s
testimony at the Senate over the impeachment trial of Supreme Court (SC)
Chief Justice Renato Corona saying no members of the House were coerced
to sign the Articles of Impeachment..... MORE

03/17/2012
Aware of the difficulties most poor parents are experiencing nowadays,
Caloocan City Mayor Enrico “Recom” Echiverri has decided to shoulder
the rental cost of the togas to be used by all local public elementary
and high school students this graduation season.

“It is only right
for the local government to ease the burden on the graduating students’
parents who may otherwise have a difficult time with their children’s
toga expenses,” according to the city chief executive.
The mayor
said it is the local government’s responsibility to provide for the
needs of the less fortunate among its constituents.

For this reason, Echiverri chose to “treat” the parents and graduating students with the togas that the latter will use..... MORE

The
Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has already started a
content analysis of the stories written by Tribune reporter Fernan
Angeles who was beaten up and shot near his house on Evangelista Street
in Barangay Pinagbuhatan, Pasig City last Sunday.

DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo said Angeles’ news articles may provide clues to determine the motive behind the attack on him.

Robredo
said they are scanning Angeles stories which were published in the
paper such as criticisms against authorities or stories mentioning
harassment, extortion and illegal drugs..... MORE